Two major title matches bookended this week’s MLW Fusion as Alex Kane and Calvin Tankman continued their rivalry over the Openweight title, plus Tajiri put his Middleweight title on the line in a fatal four-way match against Myron Reed, Matt Cross and the debuting Bandido.
After being promised to be the number 1 contender replacement for Alex Hammerstone’s MLW Heavyweight title last week by Cesar Duran, the new MLW evil power couple of Richard Holliday and Alicia Atout opened this week’s episode by putting a bounty on Davey Richards’ head, offering a huge sum of money to anyone who can take him out and secure Holliday’s path to the gold.
MLW National Openweight Champion Alex Kane defeated Calvin Tankman to retain the title
Tankman finally had his chance to get his hands on Kane after months of close calls and sneak attacks by Kane and his bodyguard, Mr. Thomas. Kane originally offered Tankman a spot in their fight club, but after Tankman refused, he became their prime target in a series of clashes and pull-apart brawls.
This was a slugfest from the get-go, continuing the story of their feud. Tankman started the better of the two, but the match was briefly stopped when Kane took out Tankman’s knee, made worse by Thomas using a steel pipe behind the referee’s back.
The referee stopped the match temporarily as Tankman could not put weight on his leg. He left ringside but was back a few minutes later to continue the fight.
Kane suplexed Tankman, but the challenger came back with a ripcord elbow to the head. Tankman was in control until Kane drove his shoulder into Tankman’s injured knee and quickly rolled him up to pick up the shock quick win.
Rich Bocchini interviewed Kane after the match, who said his win was sponsored by “Cry Baby Calvin.”
– Homicide tried to take out Richards backstage, but Richards fought him off and left in a rage looking for Holliday.
– Tag Team Champions 5150 (Rivera and Slice Boogie) called out the MLW tag division, focusing on the family legacies such as the Von Erichs and Ricky & Kerry Morton.
– Karlee Perez presented King Muertes with a rare artifact that Perez said would make him a god.
– As the entrances of the next match took place, the Saito Brothers took their shot at taking out Richards but were unsuccessful.
KC Navarro defeated Ho Ho Lun
Navarro returned after a three-month injury absence and had to try and forget about his problems with nZo as he faced Dragon Gate’s Lun in his MLW return.
This was the opposite of our opener, with both high fliers keeping a fast pace. Navarro started stronger, flipping and dodging Lun’s attacks and hitting a suicide dive to the outside.
Lun got his advantage when he tripped Navarro who fell back first onto the top turnbuckle, playing into the nZo attack where he buckle bombed Navarro into the steel ring post.
The tough Navarro overcame the aggravated injury by hitting a lungblower and his sliced bread finisher to put away Lun.
After the match, Bocchini caught up with Navarro who passionately challenged nZo to a grudge match which was later booked for next week.
During the last match, the cameras showed a pull-apart confrontation backstage between Kane and ACH.
– Gnarls Garvin and Budd Heavy seem to be getting along quite well, bonding over a lot of beers and putting a plan in place to get back to winning ways.
– Richards’ luck looked like it was running out when King Muertes joined Homicide and the Saito Brothers in finally beating him down, but Richards was saved by his future opponent Hammerstone in an attempt to keep the scheduled title match alive for next week. Holliday’s bounty plan failed, at least for now.
Myron Reed defeated Tajiri (c), Matt Cross and Bandido to win the MLW Middleweight title
Duran introduced Bandido as the mystery fourth opponent in this great, near 10 minute match. It had the usual high risks and high flying spots you would expect given those involved, but also had good fluid exchanges in the early going as all four took turns to pair off inside the ring before the high risks began.
Bandido was the main focus of all the early exchanges, but Cross took him out with a backbreaker and springboard crossbody before we went to a break.
Tajiri then took control with an array of kicks to his opponents. He locked in the tarantula on Reed, but ate a superkick from Bandido after missing his Buzzsaw kick. Reed countered a Bandido suplex with a stunner, and Cross joined in by double stomping Bandido while he was on Reed’s shoulders before diving out onto Tajiri.
Bandido then found himself on Reed’s shoulders again, this time in an electric chair position. Cross again dove off the top rope in an attempted crossbody, but Bandido caught him in mid-air and gave him a fallaway slam, also hitting Reed with a poison rana at the same time.
In a callback to their Fightland title match, Reed ducked Tajiri’s green mist as he sprayed Bandido instead. Cross took out Reed and Bandido with a double springboard cutter and went to the top to try and hit his shooting star press.
As Cross aimed for Bandido and dove off the top, Reed jumped in and caught him with a cutter out of nowhere in an excellently timed finisher. Reed then covered Cross and regained the Middleweight title for the third time.
– We finished the episode with a hype video for next week’s Hammerstone vs. Richards title match. They both promised not to hold back. Hammerstone said if he can’t put Richards away quickly, he may be in trouble due to Richards never running out of gas. Richards said Hammerstone is not ready for what he is going to bring. Hammerstone ended by saying it will be the best MLW Heavyweight title match ever.
Next week:
- MLW Champion Alex Hammerstone vs. Davey Richards in a title match
- KC Navarro vs. nZo
- MLW Tag Team Champions 5150 vs. The Von Erichs in a title match
